How it started
Like most young boys born in the late 1990's, my railfan and eventual railroad journey started with Thomas the Tank Engine episodes and the matching wooden trains. Eventually that grew to slowly acquiring some Lionel O-Scale models.
My 16-year run at railroad videography began with an elementary school video project called "Hop On Board the Recycling Train" where I used these models to haul recyclables and interviewed our local landfill manager, all at the age of nine. In 2010, the year before smart phones took over the world, I was busy burning out my Flip camera battery (remember those?) with Norfolk Southern coal trains along the New River in Southwest Virginia.
Continued investment in this film hobby turned into discovery of skill in my sophomore year of high school and the Railfan Rowan channel (originally "Northern Virginia Railfan") was born in 2014. The cinema style, scoring, and high-speed train chases depicted in the movie Unstoppable inspired me to create fast paced, high-energy, railroad content that had never been seen on YouTube before.
How it's going
After my awesome time as conductor at Norfolk Southern, I had hoped to continue the YouTube channel in addition to my rail advocacy with the Shenandoah Rail Corridor but my family and I faced simultaneous personal challenges and the YouTube channel took a back seat. After all, as cool as they are, they're just trains.
In recent years, I've drastically limited my web and screen exposure. I've often struggled with the modern challenge of living life without having to document everything, which for a long time, did not come naturally to me. Only through the power of Jesus have I experienced personal growth in how I engage with the the internet and I now have a healthy balance between the fast pace I enjoy keeping and the slower speed I often need. I do still post, and yes, I'm still alive, but it's more purposed, and less frequent.
Throughout my professional transportation career, I have continued to create meaningful railroad films that educate, inspire the generation coming up behind me and hold a standard of spiritual excellence and responsibility. Many of you reading this have been inspired by my content and have told me so in the comment section so many times. I'm grateful for all the lives that have crossed paths with mine and I hope to be a blessing to many long into the future.
To this day, being good stewards of God's good creation is still a guiding virtue in my life. One reason I'm passionate about rail transportation is because of it's unmatched fuel efficiency as a land based transit form.
Some railroad-related issues that are important to me:
Supporting Virginia's two-man crew bill
Requires two train crew members on every train, signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger in 2026
Investing in Composite Railroad Crossties
Railroad ties constructed of recycled materials rather than timber and toxic creosote; reducing plastic waste in our landfills.
Revising Precision Scheduled Railroading
Efforts that put people over profits and reduce railcar dwell time in railyards without running inefficient 15,000 foot trains that exceed infrastructure capacity.
Advocating the revival of short line rail in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley
Establishing the Shenandoah Rail Corridor coalition!